It's raining period dramas in Bollywood!

Bollywood is going back in time and how! A slew of films based on historic events, and those that are set in the the 1940s, 50s and 60s, are set to woo Bollywood fans in the coming months.

Dibakar Banerjee is making Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, which shows Sushant Singh Rajput as the Bengali sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi, who solves cases in the Kolkata of 1940s, while Shoojit Sircar is making a film titled 1911, that tells the century-old true story of football club Mohun Bagan’s historic win against an English football club in 1911.

Talking about the film, Sircar had said during the launch, “It is a period film and a true story, so it needs lot of detailing. I think it will take a few months of preparation before we begin shooting, which should probably be in October.” Anurag Kashyap, too, will recreate the Mumbai of the 1950s and 60s in his Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma-starrer Bombay Velvet.

Speaking about this trend, actor Ayushmann Khurrana, who is working on a biopic of the world’s first airplane maker, Shivkar Talpade, as well as Sircar’s 1911, says, “This phase of Indian cinema encourages a variety of genres, not just period films. However, period films have a lot of potential since they touch a nostalgic chord.” Actor Sunny Deol, too, is excited about doing Border 2, which is a sequel to his famous war film, Border (1997). “The film is based on the last 3 days of the 1971 war. I play a Rajput officer in it,” says Sunny.

Industry experts give a thumbs-up to this trend. “It is exciting that our filmmakers are taking up the challenge of making period films. These films garner a lot of interest as people want to know about the times they haven’t seen,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

However, experts also point out that making a period film is no cakewalk. “The filmmakers have the responsibility of depicting an era in an authentic way. The success of the film depends on the research and the onscreen execution,” says trade analyst Atul Mohan.

Also from the past
Lootera (2013): Set in pre-Independent Bengal
Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai (2010): Set in Mumbai of the 1970s
Jodhaa Akbar (2008): Based on the 16th century love story of a Mughal Emperor and a Rajput princess.